Subduction and exhumation mechanisms of ultra-high and high-pressure oceanic and continental crust at Makbal (Tianshan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan)

The Makbal Complex in the northern Tianshan of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan consists of metasedimentary rocks, which host high-P (HP) mafic blocks and ultra-HP Grt-Cld-Tlc schists (UHP as indicated by coesite relicts in garnet). Whole rock major and trace element signatures of the Grt-Cld-Tlc schist suggest a metasomatized protolith from either hydrothermally altered oceanic crust in a back-arc basin or arc-related volcaniclastics. Peak metamorphic conditions of the Grt-Cld-Tlc schist reached similar to 580 degrees C and 2.85 GPa corresponding to a maximum burial depth of similar to 95 km. A Sm-Nd garnet age of 475 +/- 4 Ma is interpreted as an average growth age of garnet during prograde-to-peak metamorphism; the low initial epsilon Nd value of -11 indicates a protolith with an ancient crustal component. The petrological evidence for deep subduction of oceanic crust poses questions with respect to an effective exhumation mechanism. Field relationships and the metamorphic evolution of other HP mafic oceanic rocks embedded in continentally derived metasedimentary rocks at the central Makbal Complex suggest that fragments of oceanic crust and clastic sedimentary rocks were exhumed from different depths in a subduction channel during ongoing subduction and are now exposed as a tectonic melange. Furthermore, channel flow cannot only explain a tectonic melange consisting of various rock types with different subduction histories as present at the central Makbal Complex, but also the presence of a structural 'dome' with UHP rocks in the core (central Makbal) surrounded by lower pressure nappes (including mafic dykes in continental crust) and voluminous metasedimentary rocks, mainly derived from the accretionary wedge.